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In Sudan and in New Film, War Crimes Unanswered,
Harun's Escape Recounted
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press in Africa: News Analysis
KHARTOUM, June 4
-- As UN Security Council members
in Khartoum prepare to visit Darfur tomorrow, in New York International
Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo finalizes testimony and,
it's
said, an additional indictment. Already indicted Ahmad Harun has
reportedly been
involved in Khartoum's battle in the south at Abyei. A 17-minute film
just put
online by the Aegis Trust shows blurry-faced survivors of attacks on
three
towns in Darfur naming Harun as providing money and orders to Ali
Kushayb, to
directed looting and killing. Omda Yahya is named as one direct victim
of
Kushayb. Click here to view the
film.
In
one clip, Ali Kushayb is said to claim to have killing orders directly
from the president, called on his "thuraya" or satellite phone.
Still, when
Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador John Sawers, co-leader of the
Council's visit to Sudan, if he intended to mention the ICC indictments
in
meetings with President Omar Al Bashir, or today with his advisor Nafie
Al
Nafie, Amb. Sawers
said the meetings would be confidential. Speaking
on June 3
in Juba in South Sudan,
Sawers did not not mention the indictments in the list of issues he
said he
would be raising.
Regarding
efforts to execute the arrest warrants, a story has emerged, a close
call for
Harun. He was to travel to Mecca in December for the Haaj. While his
defenders
advised him to go primarily by land, with a bit of sea to Yemen, he had
decided
to save time and fly. Meanwhile the ICC, it brags, had convinced some
neighboring
countries to divert Harun's flight, force it to land and arrest him. A
country
that shares the Nile is thought to have been enlisted to help. At the
last
minute, Harun got off the plane.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo in New York, film and
Council in Khartoum not shown
Some say Harun was tipped off,
some say by Saleh
Gosh, described as among
other things a U.S. national security asset who's passed on information
about
Al Qaeda suspects.
While the Aegis Trust
online film goes out of its way to redact names of so far unindicted
people, the website includes a "Wanted" poster of Musa Hilal, click here
for view.
The
ICC has been asked, why not also indict the rebels? Wednesday the press
traveling with the Security Council is being offered interviews
with alleged child soldiers recruited by the Justice and Equality
Movement,
some from Chad. The response is that no country has presented evidence.
Of
course this is passing the buck.
Sudan might well have proofs to show, but no
interest in buttressing the legitimacy of the ICC. Speaking of which,
with the
U.S. still not a member, how can the U.S.
applaud these indictments?
And how
can the UK, which loudly played a role in the Security Council's
referral of
the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court on March
31, 2005,
now through
Amb. Sawers said that faced with evidence of systemic killing of
civilians in Somalia, the Council should not interfere by making
any referral
to the ICC, despite requests
from Somali civil society? And what are
Moreno-Ocampo, the Aegis Trust, et al.
saying and doing about Somalia? These
are questions for which answers will be sought, in Sudan, Chad and
elsewhere. Watch
this site.
Footnote
in fairness on the Aegis Trust: this is the group which at UN
headquarters, as reported
exclusively by Inner City Press, when their display about Rwanda
garnered complaints from Turkey about a reference to genocide against
Armenians, consented to the display being taken down, and a line about
"Ottamans" being inserted, along with other changes.
One is seeking consistency, between regions, conflicts and continents,
but finding
little. To be continued.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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